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OPINION

Religious protection extends to all

When asked about the many landmark rulings he had issued, the great Alabama judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. said that most of those major cases were not difficult decisions because "The Constitution means what it says and it means it for everybody." Judge Johnson's observation came to mind this week after news reports of a controversy over the deliverer of an opening prayer at a Huntsville City Council meeting.

Many government bodies open their meetings with a prayer. The constitutionality of the practice has been upheld by the Supreme Court, which has ruled that these prayers, in and of themselves, do not rise to the level of an official establishment of religion, as prohibited by the First Amendment.

But things can still get a bit complicated, as the Huntsville case makes clear. If a governing body allows opening prayers from only one faith tradition or in fact actively moves to exclude another faith by withdrawing an invitation to deliver an opening prayer, the constitutional question becomes much less clear.

In what would have been a commendable effort to acknowledge the religious diversity of American society, the council had invited a practitioner of the Wicca faith to deliver the opening prayer. He was even listed on the agenda: "Reverend Blake Kirk, Priest of the Oak, Ash And Thorn Tradition of Wicca."

That set off some Huntsville residents — primarily, if not entirely, Christians — and in the face of their complaints, the council caved. Kirk was told he was no longer invited to deliver the opening prayer.

Why should all the rest of us non-Wiccans care? Consider what really happened in Huntsville. In a nation and a state that touts its devotion to religious liberty, a governing body pulled the invitation to a practitioner of one faith due to the objections of practitioners of another faith.

Where might such a weak-kneed decision lead? No doubt there are some in Huntsville who would object to a rabbi or an imam or a Catholic priest or a Mormon or the leader of a Hindu or Buddhist congregation offering the opening prayer at a council meeting. How would the council handle those objections?

Judge Johnson was right. The Constitution protects all of us. If a few complaints from the religious majority can effectively exclude a religious minority from participation in an official public forum, maybe it's time for a refresher course in what that visionary document says.

Read or Share this story: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/07/02/religious-protection-extends/12120945/